Nicholas Rougeux

Okay, this was fun. dialed.gg

@biodivlibrary.bsky.social The BHL site is showing a lot of timeouts and failed secure connection error messages. Sometimes it loads great for a while and suddenly becomes inaccessible (usually right in the middle of research). Any suggestions or insights into what’s happening?

I keep coming back to this to admire the illustrations. They're so well done and the style is so fitting. Will there be a behind-the-scenes blog post? I'd love to see how they came to be.

What a beautiful way to explore a fun topic. Well done!

Today's side quest was following a 200-year-old reference to another 200-year-old reference to a 300-year-old passage about something that took place 700 years ago. Necessary? Not at all. Complete? Of course.

After making good progress on my project, I found a way to make even more work for myself because…reasons. It’ll be worth it…right?

My personal projects are my escape from reality—each one its own little world that rewards slow, diligent work. I enjoy watching them evolve from nothing or a forgotten something into a brand new thing for others to enjoy. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t making something and I love it.

Careful, I may just take you up on that. 😏

Thanks for the kind words!

This is sweet and fills a lot of gaps that other tools had. Thank you for making this @obumbratta.com!

Calendar of color-coded activities. Definitions of the colors are deliberately not shown in favor of showing the pace of different activities and to avoid giving the project itself away.

Starting off the new year the same as the last three months. Here's a fun look at my timeline of daily activities so far. One color per type of activity. Legend is deliberately hidden to avoid giving away too many details. Making good progress.

~450 images down, ~900 more to go. Definitely not a small project. Progress!

I readily admit I was spoiled by the clip posted but once I got it, I thought it was even more brilliant. Well done.

Very excited to see this back again! I'm always too late but love trying.

Two months into this new project and I’m seriously entertaining the idea of doing something I've never done before but kind of wanted to do for a while. It’ll be expensive but might be worth it…or not. Either way, I’m looking forward to trying it.

Hmm.... 🤔

Found a great font led me to redefine the entire feel of a project. Love it when that happens.

Very nicely done. Your projects always have an unmatched level of polish that I enjoy exploring.

Such a lovely personal project. I love the source!

A frequent dream of mine!

Thank you!

Collage of type specimens with overlaid text saying, Printing Types: Their History, Forms & Use

Screenshot of chapter on French types from 1500 to 1800

Screenshot of a list of illustrations with thumbnails

Poster overlaid on top of a closeup of it

New: I went on a months-long treasure hunt for 1,200+ books spanning 450+ years to digitize Daniel Updike’s Printing Types from 1922, detailing the history of printing and typography. Made a nifty poster too.

Explore: www.c82.net/printing-types
How it was made: www.c82.net/blog/?id=100

The end of my current project is coming up fast. It sneaks up on me for every project. Ordered a test print of the nifty poster and getting things planned. Still a few more things to hunt down and of course a blog post to write. So much to write about…I’m excited.

I did indeed reach 1,000 and counting.

Thanks for the highlight!

I've reached the phase of this project where it requires access to the Internet for research but I can't use my mobile hotspot because I chew through data like no one's business and I don't have an unlimited plan. So now I spend my commutes not working on it and that feels weird.

Libraries and librarians are awesome. That is all.

Past me: I should track down all the sources, it shouldn't be too bad.
Present me: I identified 400, tracked down more than 300, and I'm only ~50% done. Will I reach 1,000?
Future me: That was worth it...right?

Spent hours tracking down a 100+ year old reference to a 500+ year old source only to find it was wrong and then found the correct 500+ year old source. Not easy but very satisfying.

My current project has many, many, many footnotes and I'm determined to hunt down and link to every source I can find. So much good stuff buried in there.